ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara Motherboard Review: ASRock Rocks With White Marble
by Gavin Bonshor on August 2, 2023 9:00 AM ESTGaming Performance
When it comes to testing motherboards, much of the performance between most of the boards tested with the same processor such as the Intel Core i9-13900K, is fairly similar. The main reason we're testing gaming performance in our motherboard reviews is to see if there are any anomalies. There are also occasions on platforms where some vendors will 'overcharge' performance by implementing Multi-Core Enhancement (MCE). This can alter performance far beyond what processor vendors such as AMD and Intel set as their default values.
For Z790 we are running using Windows 11 64-bit with the 22H2 update.
F1 2022: 1080p Ultra Settings
F1 2022: 4K High Settings
Total War: Warhammer 3: 1080p Ultra Settings
Total War: Warhammer 3: 4K High Settings
Looking at the gaming performance of the ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara, its performance is similar to the rest of the LGA 1700 motherboards we've tested. The only anomaly we could see was in Total War: Warhammer 3 at 4K, where we saw lower than ideal 95th percentile frame rates, which in comparison, was around 13% slower than the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme.
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Threska - Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - link
Looks pretty although if people were complaining about "active cooling" on AMD boards, they'll do the same with this board.deporter - Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - link
Yep, I'm one of those complainers. Active cooling is a significant negative for me.And I'm generally a bit disappointed that desktop PC parts have been getting hotter for the last few generations. CPUs, motherboards, even SSDs...
imaheadcase - Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - link
Yeah, I mean if its the way its going so be it, but when you got 5.0 SSD drives needing a heatsink that won't let me close back of case its becoming a problem. lolIf you use 5 of the Nvma drives in this on motherboard, will all 5 run at max speed i wonder, or is it limited like when using all USB drives sharing bandwidth? Not up to speed on that stuff.
Qasar - Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - link
i have a x570 board, with a chipset fan on it, and i have NEVER heard it......sorry but those complaining about things like this, i bet, have never heard one, or even owned a board with one. just assume its loud, and run away
Spoelie - Thursday, August 3, 2023 - link
That fan, even if relatively quiet when new, is still a long term liability a lot of people are not willing to deal with.- Fans usually get louder as they age
- Fans spread dust
- Fans will fail over time, and depending on the protections built in to the motherboard, lead to lower performance difficult to diagnose, or outright damage. Given the generally increasing lifetime of a system nowadays, this is a realistic prospect.
Threska - Friday, August 4, 2023 - link
Reason I went with the "S" version of the x570. No fan to deal with.PeachNCream - Friday, August 4, 2023 - link
For most people I've seen that are concerned with active motherboard cooling, its not a matter of noise. Long term fan function tends to be a bit more of an iffy prospect when fan size decreases. I haven't see statistical data, but I have personally dealt with a higher number of small fan replacement issues than I have larger fans despite 80+mm fans representing the majority of the fans I've dealt with over the years. Down in the 40mm or smaller range, the failure rate (again personal experience and anecdotes only) seems significantly higher. Motherboards are usually expected to live a few years so active cooling is seen as something of a detriment.Sivar - Friday, August 11, 2023 - link
This ^.Small fans are overwhelmingly less reliable, not just for some $300 consumer board, but all they way up through enterprise products. We have had major server outages because some NIC cooling fan failed. We have had factory downtime because of fan failures in a literal clean room.
Just, no. I will always actively recommend that people take a hard pass on actively cooled motherboards, or any component with a dinky fan. GPUs and quality case fans are fine.
Manufacturers: If you add a fan, me and everyone that consults with me will not touch your motherboard with somebody else's 100-foot pole.
artifex - Friday, August 4, 2023 - link
Looks like guru3d is reporting AsRock has some "all white" boards announced for mid tier Intel and AMD chipsets. At least some of those will be passive only. Hopefully Anandtech can look into those also, especially any with extra features.skinnyelephant - Friday, September 29, 2023 - link
I love white PC parts. If I had a choice and I was building a new pc, I would be happy to getone of those.